April 2011 (Volume 20, Number 4)

APS NEWS
A Publication of the American Physical Society • www.aps.org/publications/apsnews
Sub-Atomic Physics Marks 100th
Birthday at April Meeting
Located in Anaheim, California
from April 30 through May 3, this
year’s APS April Meeting will bring
together over 1,000 physicists to
share the latest research in particle
physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics and plasma physics research,
featuring 170 sessions, 225 invited
speakers and three poster sessions.
Commemorating the discovery
of the atomic nucleus, the theme of
the meeting is “100 years of SubAtomic Physics”. As the official
kickoff to the meeting, the Kavli
Foundation is sponsoring a keynote
session starting with a retrospective look at the last century of work
probing the fundamental particles
of the universe. During session A1
on Saturday morning, Steven Weinberg from the University of Texas at
Austin, will highlight the history of
particle physics from Rutherford’s
gold foil experiment to the startup
of the LHC. Picking up from there,
Maria Spiropulu of CERN will discuss the latest results from the LHC,
while Dan Hooper of Fermilab will
bring an update on the hunt for the
theorized WIMPS that make up
dark matter.
Plenary Sessions: Two other
plenary sessions promise to enlighten audiences on a range of topics.
The Monday morning plenary sesMEETING continued on page 6
Speaking at a press conference
on February 28 at the APS editorial
offices in Ridge, NY, Congressman
Tim Bishop (D–NY) condemned
possible funding cuts to Brookhaven National Laboratory for the rest
of the fiscal year. Bishop said that
the proposed cuts were “destructive” and would have long-lasting
effects on the lab and local com-
munity.
As of February 28, no federal
budget had been passed for fiscal
year 2011, and the government
had been running at fiscal year
2010 funding levels. On February
19, the House of Representatives
passed a bill, H.R.1, that would
fund the government, but cut the
budget for the rest of the fiscal year
by $61 billion. The Department
Photo by Michael Lucibella
No, APS Director of Public Affairs Michael Lubell is not interrupting the press conference to take a phone call. He is pointing out to the audience the many ways
in which fundamental physics research contributed to the smart phone, and how
damaging cutting back on physics research could be to the economy. Congressman Tim Bishop, the main speaker at the press conference, looks on at left. In
the background, museum-quality bound volumes of the Physical Review grace the
shelves at the APS editorial offices in Ridge, NY.
Conference Tackles Energy,
Climate Change
See Page 5
APS is launching a trial program at its April Meeting to allow
researchers, especially those based
outside the United States, access
to some of the meeting’s presentations. Using INDICO, a scientific
collaboration service developed
by CERN, select speakers will upload their presentation materials
directly to the web, before, during
or after the meeting. This trial will
provide access to presentations
from eleven of the regular invited
sessions, as well as the three plenary sessions.
“Our aim is to facilitate the dissemination of fresh new scientific
results,” said Karsten Heeger, chair
of APS’s Committee on International Scientific Affairs (CISA).
of Energy’s Office of Science,
which runs the national laboratories, would lose $1.1 billion of its
$5.1 billion budget in the remaining seven months of the fiscal year.
The effects of this 22 percent cut
would be especially acute because
the entirety of it would be enacted
only on the second half of the fiscal
year, meaning that the labs would
be facing nearly a 40 percent cut
during that time.
As APS News goes to press, the
budget has not yet been finalized.
The Republican-controlled House
passed its version, but the Democratic-controlled Senate has so
far rejected many of the proposed
cuts. The House version does not
specify how much each individual
lab would stand to lose, but estimates by Brookhaven look at the
impact of the cuts were they spread
out evenly among all the national
labs.
“I think all of us should hope
that this budget does not get passed.
But if it does, I think it sends a terribly, terribly, depressing message
about the commitment that this
nation has to remaining on the
cutting edge in terms of scientific
research,” Bishop said. “Scientists
“From our experience people are
always eager to share their talks
and share their results.”
Though the use of INDICO is
a one-time trial, organizers hope
to garner information about who
is interested in remote access to
the presentations, and how best
to market it. Responses from the
membership, speakers and meeting attendees will be useful to the
APS Headquarters IT (HQIT) staff
as they enhance the APS Online
Bulletin system to include the ability for speakers to upload their presentation materials. This feature is
currently under development.
“The trial should help us learn
how the speakers and membership may use online access to slide
presentations,” said Amy Flatten,
APS Director of International Affairs. “It’s part of a larger effort to
make our meetings more accessible to our members outside the
United States.”
About 25 percent of APS’s
non-student membership resides
outside of the United States. For
the test program, both members
and non-members will be able to
access the presentations.
“What we want to do is provide
a level of service to our international members that doesn’t currently exist and a level of access to
our meetings that doesn’t currently
exist,” Flatten said.
“We would like to showcase the
TRIAL continued on page 6
APS President Sends Condolences to Japan
In the wake of the combined disasters of the Japanese earthquake and
tsunami on March 11, followed by the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear complex, APS President Barry Barish sent letters to representatives of the Japanese Society of Applied Physics and the Physical
Society of Japan. The letter to the Japanese Society of Applied Physics, dated March 14, follows:
"On behalf of the American Physical Society (APS), I would like to convey our deepest care and sympathy to the citizens of Japan and the
Japan Society of Applied Physics for the tragedy that your country has
suffered as a result of the earthquake and tsunami last week. We are
saddened by the loss of lives and the extent of the devastation. Our
thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by this tragic event.
Along with our condolences for the loss of life and property, we share
your concerns over the impact on your scientific community and facilities. We hope that our fellow scientists and their families are safe.
We join our colleagues worldwide in extending our sympathies to the
Japanese people and the Japanese scientific community. Please know
that the members of the American Physical Society are with you during
this difficult time.
Sincerely,
Barry Barish"
Kudos for APS Blog
CUTS continued on page 6
Workshop to Help Scientists Engage in Public Service
The third in a series of campaign
education workshops will take
place in Washington at the headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As APS News goes to press,
the workshop is scheduled for Saturday, May 7, but the date may be
subject to change. Like its predecessors, the workshop is designed
for scientists and engineers who
recognize the importance of public
service and who are contemplating either running for public office,
helping in a campaign, or serving
in government in an administrative
capacity. The one-day workshop
will cover all levels of government,
from local school boards and town
councils to the US Congress. Experienced campaign professionals
will be on hand to give participants
an overview of what’s involved in
a political campaign, and how to
mount a successful one.
APS is one of the sponsors of
the workshop, and a limited number of registration fee rebates will
be available to APS members who
attend. These will be allocated on
TM
www.aps.org/publications/apsnews
Trial Program Puts Selected Meeting Presentations on the Web
Local Congressman Decries Brookhaven Cuts
By Michael Lucibella
April 2011
Volume 20, No. 4
a first-come first-served basis, so
it's important for those interested
to register early. The workshop
is being held under the auspices
of Scientists and Engineers for
America (SEA), and more information, including how to register,
is available at www.seaworkshop.
com. The first twelve APS members who register will be eligible
to have half their registration refunded. Those applying for the
rebate should send an email confirming their registration to sea@
aps.org.
The APS outreach blog, Physics Buzz, has been receiving lots of attention
on the Internet recently. In October, it was named among the five best physics blogs by the Institute of Physics website physics.org. In March, Physics
Buzz was at the top of LaboratoryTechnician.org’s list of the 50 best physics
blogs. Physics Buzz was launched four and a half years ago to get physics
news out into the blogosphere and to excite the general public about the science. It has since become an integral part of Physics Central, APS’ outreach
website, and published its 1,000th post. It is prominently displayed at www.
physicscentral.com. -Mary Catherine Adams
APS NEWS
2 • April 2011
This Month in Physics History
Members
in the
Media
Ed. Note: We begin the “Members in the Media” column with
several quotes from members
about the nuclear disaster in Japan, as of March 15.
“The administration believes
we must rely on a diverse set of
energy sources, including renewables like wind and solar, natural gas, clean coal and nuclear
power…The administration is
committed to learning from Japan’s experience as we work to
continue to strengthen America’s
nuclear industry.”
Steven Chu, U.S. Department of Energy, The Los Angeles
Times, March 15, 2011.
“They imply some kind of core
problem.”
Thomas B. Cochran, the Natural Resources Defense Council,
on the possible release of radioactive iodine and cesium from the
Fukushima plant, The New York
Times, March 12, 2011.
“The thyroid is more sensitive
“I was thinking, ‘What’s the
scariest thing that I could make
with nanotechnology?’”
Paul McEuen, Cornell, on
the inspiration for his sci-fi novel
“Spiral,” The Wall Street Journal,
March 18, 2011.
“We are now working to accumulate trillions of positrons or
more in a novel ‘multicell’ trap–an
array of magnetic bottles akin to a
hotel with many rooms, with each
room containing tens of billions of
antiparticles.”
Clifford Surko, University of
California, San Diego, describing
his work to build the world’s largest antimatter trap, MSNBC.com,
February 18, 2011.
“The magnitude of the whole
thing was overwhelming as it detonated, sitting there in the desert
in the early morning.”
Robert Carter, describing witnessing his work come to fruition
while at the Manhattan Project,
FoxNews.com, February 19,
2011.
“You put energy into it, and
some of that energy gets converted into that beautiful coherent
light beam.”
Doug Stone, Yale, on devel-
APS NEWS
to damage when the cells are dividing and the gland is growing.”
Frank von Hippel, Princeton,
on the dangers of radiation to
children, The New York Times,
March 12, 2011.
“As long as there’s no meltdown of the fuel rods, you’re in
good shape.”
Kirby Kemper, Florida State
University, on the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power station, The Wall Street
Journal, March 13, 2011.
“Let’s say we have an 8.0
earthquake–smaller than the one
that hit Japan–right on the San
Andreas Fault… According to the
U.S. Geological Survey, the devastation would be catastrophic.
Downtown L.A. flattened. Forty
percent could withstand an 8.0
earthquake, but 15 percent of the
tall buildings are at risk and could,
in fact, collapse.”
Michio Kaku, City College
of New York, ABCNews.com,
March 14, 2011.
oping an “anti-laser,” The New
York Times, February 21, 2011.
“I am saying that all predictions concerning climate [change]
are highly uncertain. On the other
hand, the remedies proposed by
the experts are enormously costly
and damaging.”
Freeman Dyson, Institute for
Advanced Study, The Independent, February 25, 2011.
“I wonder if Watson wasn’t
having a low-voltage night, because I certainly didn’t expect to
score higher than the computer.”
Rush Holt (D-N.J.) U.S. House
of Representatives, after learning
he beat the computer Watson in an
online Jeopardy game, The Associated Press, March 2, 2011.
“I am pretty sure that once you
admit exotic matter of some suitable kind, you can mathematically
construct a star with a wormhole
inside.”
Dieter Brill, University of
Maryland, on a hypothesized
“phantom matter” that could prop
open a wormhole, United Press
International, March 4, 2011.
“To me the problem of a notion
MEMBERS continued on page 5
Series II, Vol. 20, No. 04
April 2011
© 2011 The American Physical Society
Coden: ANWSEN
ISSN: 1058-8132
Editor•. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alan Chodos
Staff Science Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michael Lucibella
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I
April 16, 1901: Death of Henry Rowland
saac Newton’s experiments with splitting light using a prism in the 17th century inspired a scientist named James Gregory to look more closely at
bird feathers, and outline some basic principles for
what would become the modern diffraction grating.
By 1785, Philadelphia inventor David Rittenhouse
had figured out how to build the first diffraction grating by stringing hairs between two threaded screws.
In 1821, a German physicist named Joseph von
Fraunhofer built a very similar device.
However, these early attempts at building diffraction gratings were rough, and the patterns of parallel
lines too imprecise, which limited their usefulness
in spectroscopy–an important tool in physics, chemistry, and astronomy. The smaller the
distance between those parallel lines,
the higher the resolution of the gratings. The man who did the most to improve the precision of diffraction gratings, thereby revolutionizing the field
of spectroscopy, was the 19th century
American physicist Henry Rowland.
Born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in
1848, Rowland came from a long line
of Protestant theologians, and his family expected him to become a minister.
But young Henry rejected the classics and had a passion from the start for science, particularly electrical
and chemical experiments that he devised himself.
When he was 17, his family relented and sent him to
Rensselaer Technological Institute, where he earned
a degree in civil engineering in 1870. He briefly
worked for the Western New York railway after
graduation, and then taught science at the University
of Wooster in Ohio. By 1876, he had returned to RPI
as an instructor in natural philosophy.
Alas, the professional respect of his peers was
not immediately forthcoming. Rowland struggled to
have his early scientific papers published in US journals. Frustrated, he sent a paper on his work in magnetic permeability to the eminent British physicist
James Clerk Maxwell, who published it in London’s
Philosophical Magazine. His US colleagues did not
seem to notice.
Rowland was first and foremost a researcher.
Years later, at a AAAS meeting in 1883, Rowland
declared, “I here assert that all can find time for scientific research if they desire it. But here, again, that
curse of our country, mediocrity, is upon us. Our colleges and universities seldom call for first-class men
of reputation, and I have even heard the trustee of a
well-known college assert that no professor should
engage in research because of the time wasted.”
In 1875, Rowland’s luck turned. A man named
Daniel Colt Gilman began asking for recommendations for faculty members to join the newly established Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
Maryland, the first true research institution in the
US. One name kept popping up among European
scientists: Henry Rowland. Gilman offered Rowland a position at the fledgling university as a physics professor, which Rowland was happy to accept.
Once on board, Rowland embarked upon a tour
of European laboratories to glean ideas and purchase any necessary equipment to reproduce similar
world-class laboratories back in Baltimore. Among
the labs he visited was that of Hermann von Helm-
holtz in Berlin, where he had a chance to work with
the great physicist firsthand and conduct an experiment on the magnetic effect of a charged rotating
disc–something he’d never had the means to attempt
before. The experiment was a smashing success:
Rowland demonstrated unequivocally that a charged
body in motion produces a magnetic field.
After getting settled in at Hopkins, Rowland attacked his scientific pursuits with renewed vigor. He
avoided teaching and administrative duties as much
as possible, in favor of research, and when he did
teach, his students were often devastated by his forbidding presence and withering critiques.
For example, he undertook a series of experiments to re-calibrate the value for the
ohm, coming up with a much smaller
number than the original. (Rowland’s
conclusion was accepted as correct.)
He also supervised several experiments that led one of his graduate
students, Edwin Hall, to discover the
eponymous Hall effect.
In other work, he set about re-creating James Joule’s seminal paddlewheel experiment for measuring the
mechanical equivalent of heat. Rowland greatly improved upon the original apparatus:
his version was larger, and his experiments were
conducted over a wider temperature range, resulting in a much higher number than that obtained by
Joule. He also noted that the specific heat of water
varied as a function of temperature; Joule had assumed the specific heat would be constant.
Then Rowland became intrigued by diffraction
gratings, and decided to try to improve their precision. He invented a “ruling engine”: a machine that
employed one main screw to shift the diamond tip
used to etch the grating a very small distance between each line during the etching process, done on
a concave surface. He went on to use his diffraction
gratings in spectrometers to study the solar spectrum, producing an impressive photographic map of
that spectrum in 1888. His gratings were orders of
magnitude better than others available at the time,
and much in demand. He sold hundreds to scientists
all over the world. Ultimately, Rowland’s name became so strongly associated with diffraction gratings
that one is featured in his official 1897 portrait by
artist Thomas Eakins.
There is an apocryphal story that Rowland–while
under oath in court as part of a lawsuit he was involved with–once declared himself to be the world’s
greatest physicist. In reality, he said he was “the highest known authority in this country upon the subject
of the laws and principles of electricity.”
The man who struggled for recognition from his
peers ended up being awarded the Henry Draper
Medal in 1890 by the National Academy of Sciences, for his contributions to astrophysics. When the
American Physical Society was founded in 1899,
Rowland became its very first president. Alas, Rowland’s health failed at a relatively young age: he was
diagnosed with diabetes shortly after marrying in
1890, and thereafter focused on inventing and patenting various improvements in telegraphy so that
he would not leave his family destitute. He died in
1901 of complications from the disease.
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General Councillors
Marcela Carena*, Haiyan Gao, Marta Dark McNeese,
Katherine Freese*, Nergis Mavalvala*, Warren Mori,
Pierre Meystre, Jorge Pullin*
ADVISORS
International Councillor
Belita Koiler
International Advisors
Louis Felipe Rodriguez Jorge, Mexican Physical Society;
Henry van Driel, Canadian Association of Physicists
APS COUNCIL 2011
Chair, Panel on Public Affairs
Venkatesh Narayamurti
President
Barry C. Barish*, Caltech
President-Elect
Robert L. Byer*, Stanford University
Vice-President
Michael S. Turner*, University of Chicago
Executive Officer
Kate P. Kirby*, Harvard-Smithsonian (retired)
Treasurer
Joseph W. Serene*, Georgetown University (Emeritus)
Editor-in-Chief
Gene D. Sprouse*, Stony Brook University (on leave)
Past-President
Curtis G. Callan, Jr.*, Princeton University
Chair, Nominating Committee
Steven Girvin
Division, Forum and Section Councillors
Neil Cornish (Astrophysics), Thomas Gallagher (Atomic,
Molecular & Optical Physics), Mark Reeves (Biological), Nancy Levinger* (Chemical), Arthur Epstein (Condensed Matter Physics), David Landau (Computational),
James Wallace (Fluid Dynamics), Gay Stewart* (Forum
on Education), Amber Stuver*, (Forum on Graduate
Student Affairs), Michael Riordan (Forum on History of
Physics), Stefan Zolner* (Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics), Herman Winick (Forum on International
Physics), Philip “Bo” Hammer (Forum on Physics and
Society), Anthony Johnson (Laser Science), Ted Einstein
(Materials), David McIntyre (Northwest Section), Wick
Haxton (Nuclear), Marjorie Corcoran (Particles &
Fields), John Galayda (Physics of Beams), Vincent Chan
(Plasma), Scott Milner (Polymer Physics), Bruce Barrett
(4 Corners Section)
Representatives from Other Societies
Fred Dylla, AIP; David R. Sokoloff, AAPT
Staff Representatives
Alan Chodos, Associate Executive Officer; Amy Flatten
Director of International Affairs; Ted Hodapp, Director
of Education and Diversity; Michael Lubell, Director,
Public Affairs; Dan Kulp, Editorial Director; Christine
Giaccone, Director, Journal Operations; Michael
Stephens, Controller and Assistant Treasurer
Administrator for Governing Committees
Ken Cole
* Members of the APS Executive Board
APS NEWS
April 2011 • 3
Washington Dispatch
A bimonthly update from the APS Office of Public Affairs
ISSUE: Budget and Authorization Environment
Fiscal Year 2011 Update
In the last edition of the Dispatch, we reported that Congress had passed
a Continuing Resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 spending, which
extended funding for federal programs through March 4th 2011 at FY
2010 levels with virtually no waivers. On February 11th, the House
Republicans released their proposed FY11 funding bill (H.R. 1), which
included a total of $61 billion worth of cuts to the Federal budget and
significant cuts to DOE Office of Science, NIST, and NSF. The cuts
would have to be absorbed in the seven months that remain in FY11.
The effective reductions, from FY10 levels, would be 9.9% for NSF;
32.7% for DOE Office of Science; and 36% for NIST Core Programs.
The House-passed bill was a non-starter for the Democrat-controlled
Senate chamber. With a government shutdown looming, the House and
Senate agreed on March 1st to a two week extension of the FY11 CR,
accompanied by $4 billion in reductions that mirrored cuts the White
House had requested in FY12. On March 9th, the Senate rejected two
bills that would have extended the CR for the balance of the fiscal year:
a Republican proposal to cut an additional $57 billion in accordance
with H.R. 1 and a Democratic proposal that would have cut $4.7 billion.
As of the deadline for the Dispatch, House GOP leaders have begun
behind-the-scenes negotiations on another short-term stopgap
spending measure to keep the government operating beyond March
18th. A Senate aide close to the House GOP leadership said the measure
would likely keep the government running for another 3 weeks, with
accompanying reductions of $2 billion per week ($6 billion total).
Senate Democrats appear willing to agree to the plan but worry that by
accepting a series of short-term government funding measures they
will eventually provide the House Republicans with the $61 billion in
cuts the GOP is seeking. “I don’t like this death by a thousand cuts but
I also don’t want a government shutdown,” Senator Mikulski (D-MD)
said last week. The White House has also sent signals that it is ready to
accept many, if not most, of the Republican reductions if that will keep
the government open.
Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request
On February 14th, President Obama released his annual Budget
Request for Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12). In light of fiscal and political
realities, the request is fairly good for science.
The following summarizes the presidential request for the key science
agencies:
National Science Foundation (NSF): Up 13% from FY10 enacted
levels to $8.9 billion in FY12. The request keeps the Foundation on
its ten-year doubling, as authorized by the America COMPETES Act
(Public Law 110-69).
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Core: Up
15% from FY10 enacted levels to $763.5 million in FY12. The NIST
Core budget comprises the Scientific & Technical Research and
Services (STRS) and Construction of Research Facilities (CRF). The
STRS request is $678.9 million, an increase of 32% from 2010; the
CRF request is $84.6 million, a decrease of 42% from 2010.
Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE SC): Up 9.2% from
FY10 enacted levels to $5.4 billion in FY12.
The proposed FY2012 budget does eliminate funding for the TEVATRON
at Fermi as well as the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility. The DOE
Office of Science budget proposal explains that continued upgrades
to the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) and
construction of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) necessitated
these cuts. However, while the closure of the TEVATRON was expected,
the Holifield closure was not. Hearings on the proposed FY2012 budget
are underway, but it is unclear when voting will take place.
Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects AgencyEnergy (ARPA-E): $550 million; ARPA-E did not receive appropriations
in the FY10 budget because it received funding through the Stimulus
bill.
Be sure to check the APS Washington Office’s Blog, Physics Frontline
(http://physicsfrontline.aps.org/), for the latest news on the FY11 and
FY12 Budgets.
ISSUE: POPA Reports
The Energy Critical Elements (ECEs) Study Group publicly released its
report, which examines the scarcity of critical elements for new energy
technologies, on February 18th at a press conference held at the AAAS
Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. The report has received extensive
coverage in the media, and is the subject of the Back Page in this issue
of APS News. The report includes policy recommendations on: the
coordination of departmental efforts where ECEs are concerned; the
gathering and analysis of information on ECEs; research, development,
and workforce issues; efficiency and recycling efforts; and possible
market interventions. On February 17th, Senator Udall (D-CO) introduced
a bill that implements nearly all of the recommendations. Briefings have
been scheduled for or have already been provided to the Department of
Energy, the Department of Defense, the Office of Science & Technology
Policy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Department of the Interior.
As of the writing of this dispatch, the Direct Air Capture Report still
remains under review.
DISPATCH continued on page 4
The Jasmine Revolution
By Mourad Telmini
What happened in Tunisia on
January 14th 2011 is no doubt
a major event in the history of a
century that started with another
milestone, the tragedy of September 11th 2001. After a decade
under the sign of terror and war,
the flavor of Jasmine is bringing
to the world a breeze of freshness
and optimism.
By its purpose, dynamics, first
results and ongoing consequences, it makes sense to compare
the Jasmine revolution to the fall
of the Berlin wall. Indeed, while
these lines are being written, the
news on the Internet reports on
Chinese opposition leaders who
are taking the Jasmine revolution
as an example for bringing about
democracy in China, inspired by
the role that new technologies and
social networks played in Tunisia.
Obviously, the perfume of Jasmine, this beautiful and delicate
white flower typical of Tunisia, is
diffusing across the world.
When looking to the repercussions of the Jasmine revolution,
first in the neighboring countries
of the Middle East region, where
the Egyptian people succeeded
to drive out Hosni Mubarak, and
where dramatic events are currently underway in Libya, Algeria, Yemen and Bahrain, any
physicist can find in this dynamics a striking illustration of the
famous “butterfly effect.” Indeed,
the whole story started with a
rather banal incident: on December 17th 2010, a policewoman
slapped Mohamed Bouazizi, a
young jobless man who was trying hard to sell some fruit and
vegetables in the market of a poor
city in the center of Tunisia called
Sidi Bouzid.
For Mohamed, valiant heir of
a people whose 3000 years of history include such icons as Hannibal, who crossed the Alps using
elephants, Saint Augustine, Ibn
Khaldoun and other geniuses, this
humiliation was too much. Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in front of the official representatives of the government. By
this act, he became the first martyr
and the symbol of the revolution
and freedom. His message was received one hundred percent by the
people of Sidi Bouzid : No dignity means no life. A spontaneous,
popular demonstration started to
rise up, but immediately faced the
oppression of the regime. Indeed,
like many other governments in
the region, the Tunisian dictatorial regime took advantage of the
atmosphere post September 11,
with the tacit benediction of the
main western democracies, to oppress any protest, even peaceful
and civil, branding the protesters
as dangerous terrorists.
Actually, all the ingredients
for a revolution aiming toward a
transition to democracy and the
free world were there for many
years. The Tunisian people are
among the most advanced in
North Africa. This small country
Photo by Mourad Telmini
was the first to abolish slavery
(1846), to promulgate a constitution (1861), to introduce modern
science in education (1875), to
prohibit polygamy (1957), etc.
The Tunisian youth are extremely
open-minded and in touch with
the most advanced communication technologies (more than 25%
of the 10 million Tunisians have a
Facebook account). A very widely
shared feeling is that the Tunisian
people deserve to join the free
world and become a genuine democracy, and the president, in
office for 23 years, became the
major obstacle to that legitimate
aspiration.
The echo of the Sidi Bouzid
events was instantaneously broadcast through the social networks
and the protest increased with
demonstrations in the other cities
of Tunisia (Regueb, Kasserine,
Thala, …) where the dictatorial
government commanded snipers
to kill the peaceful protesters. The
videos recorded by the people
of Kasserine with their mobile
phones and uploaded on the net
shocked the nation, whereas the
official media continued to deny
or minimize these events, or present them as terrorism acts perpetrated by foreign agents.
Despite the speeches of Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali, aggressive
and pathetic, an implicit, but
strong consensus was growing up
among the people: The dictator
has to go. On Friday January 14th
2011, many tens of thousands
demonstrated in Tunis, transforming Habib Bourguiba avenue,
named after the first president
of Tunisia, to a civilian place de
combat against despotism. The
few hours of this civilian demonstration were clear enough to
force the dictator to leave. I was
there and I can testify how impressive this demonstration was,
not only by the number of people,
but also and mainly by their civility and the very high quality of
their behavior and their demands.
We were undertaking the first
revolution of the 21th century and
the conscience of this exceptional
event was so great, that a very
strange and unique phenomenon
happened. A kind of collective effect linked all the demonstrators
together, making them take care
of each other, support each other
and feel that it is a leitmotiv and
a national duty to be exemplary.
Moreover, it is interesting that
many notices were written in
English, with slogans like “Game
over”, “Yes we can,” etc (see picture). This is absolutely new because the preceding generation
was tightly linked to France and
French culture and language. It is
no longer the case. Tunisian youth
is open to the entire world. It will
be great if this message is well
taken and well understood by our
friends from all over the world.
Afterwards, if one has to take
a lesson from the Jasmine revolution, I think that it would be
to never despair of humankind,
whatever their present status, and
wherever they live. For many
years, people around the world,
including scientists, were convinced that the only way to bring
Arab countries to democracy, if
any, is the Iraqi example, and it
doesn’t matter if the price for that
can be tens of thousands of civilians killed. The Tunisian revolution demonstrates with the most
striking clarity how much this
Machiavellian view is wrong. Tunisians and Arabs are humans on
the same footing as others. They
are able to emancipate themselves
and contribute to the stability and
the progress of humankind. All
that we need is to be more known
and accepted as we are, without
any stereotypes or clichés.. Contrary to a widely shared but false
idea, democracy in the Arab world
is the best guarantee for peace and
stability in the Middle East. The
transition towards democracy
should be strongly supported by
the US and other main democracies. We need to learn from your
experiences. We want to rely on
your friendship, to show you our
luminous face, not that dark one
portrayed in the media and from
which we have all suffered so
much. Together, we can go forward through mutual collaboration. Personally, I have the enormous good fortune to have many
friends in US and I had the opportunity to visit this fantastic country. But, many of my colleagues,
despite the fact that they are conducting very good science, and
even those who are retired now,
have never had the possibility to
collaborate with US scientists,
nor to visit America. We deserve
more interest, and this is beneficial both for you and for us.
JASMINE continued on page 7
APS NEWS
4 • April 2011
Letters
Open Letter to APS President Barry Barish
Others Contributed More than Van de
Graaff to Electrostatic Accelerators
The column “This Month in
Physics History” in the February APS News, which comments
on the 1935 patent granted for
the Van de Graaff generator, is
a better example of the power
of an eponym than it is of physics history. While the importance
of Van de Graaff’s development
of his method of generating high
voltages by carrying charge to a
terminal through charge sprayed
on a continuous canvas belt is
properly acknowledged, Van de
Graaff’s early machines produced
high voltages–and great pictures
of lighting discharge and publicity–but not high energy beams.
Hence those machines were not
“accelerators” and were not useful
in nuclear physics research.
The earliest application of the
Van de Graaff potential generation mechanism to produce an accelerator was centered at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
Laboratories in Washington where
Tuve, Hafstad, and Dahl, Phys.
Rev. 48, 315-337 (1935), describe
their development of “electrostatic generators… used for the
production of high energy protons
and deuterons.” In that paper they
reported that late in 1933 they succeeded in accelerating 20 microamp beams of protons to energies
of over one MeV. In later papers
they report using their electrostatic generator in important experiments bearing on the structure of
protons and light nuclei.
Merle Tuve grew up in Canton, North Dakota, across the
street from his best friend, Ernest
Lawrence, both from Norwegian
immigrant families (the name
Lawrence was anglicized from
Lavrens). Odd Dahl, physicist and
arctic explorer, was Norwegian
and returned to Norway a few
years after the 1935 paper was
published. Tuve was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences in
1946.
The history of electrostatic accelerators continued with work by
Ray Herb, elected to the National
Academy of Sciences in 1955.
Beginning in the late 1930s at
Wisconsin, Herb’s machines produced highly controlled nearly
mono-energetic proton beams up
to energies of 4.5 MeV. The two
generators which played an important role at Los Alamos during WWII were Herb’s machines
brought from Wisconsin. As a
graduate student and then junior
faculty member at Wisconsin
circa 1950 who worked with “the
long tank”, a generator returned
from Los Alamos, I recall, with
amusement, that we always called
the machine “the electrostatic
generator”,
never–bite-yourtongue–the Van de Graaff. And it
was Ray Herb who developed in
the 1960s the pelletron generators
of which several hundred are in
use today. The Pelletron potential
generation mechanism is a kind
of grandchild of Van de Graaff’s
design where the high voltage is
generated through the transfer of
charge carried by belts of metal
pellets connected with insulating
nylon links.
So honor Van de Graaff! But
honor Tuve, Herb, and others who
contributed more to the development of the electrostatic generators that have played a central
role in our understanding of the
nucleus.
Robert K. Adair
Hamden, CT
It Pays to Keep Track of Units
The Back Page in the February
APS News makes a hypothetical
comparison as to which of two job
candidates one would hire: what
appears to be an American high
school graduate at $17/hr and a
more qualified foreign candidate
eager to work for $1.50/hr. The
comparison has little merit because the respective costs of living
in the two candidates’ countries is
not considered. Having only half
the data makes the author’s conclusion suspect. The cost of living
relative to the wage paid is an important consideration.
What the authors of the article, Rising Above the Gathering
Storm, Revisited, are doing is to
use only one coordinate system
for comparison. There are two
coordinate systems with different
scales on their respective axes,
one for the American candidate
and one for the foreign candidate.
When engineers do what the authors have done it causes space
probes to crash into the planets
upon which they were supposed
to land softly. One cannot put
the foreign candidate data on the
American candidate’s coordinate
system without scaling the numbers accordingly, and vice versa.
Dimensional analysis used to be
taught before we moved on to the
“modern stuff”. Knowing what
unit system one is working in has
always had value until h = c =
whatever = 1 came along.
Tom J. Gray
Corpus Christi, TX
Visit us
on the web at
http://www.aps.org/
publications/apsnews
In the January, 2011 issue of
APS News, you responded to a
question from the reporter as to
what you considered the most
pressing issue facing the physics
community right now with the
statement, “Research Funding”.
You and I have known each
other for over fifty years, dating back to when we were both
at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory conducting experimental
research in elementary particle
physics. I don’t believe that either of us would have given that
response then and I still do not
believe that your response would
be appropriate today. It is one that
I have heard repeatedly over the
years, particularly by scientists
who have moved into advisory
and administrative responsibilities as they have aged. It misses
the mark.
What would my response have
been? Mine would have been,
“Excellence of Ideas”.
As you know, just about 25
years after the establishment of
the NSF, I spent eight years of my
career there, between 1972 and
1980, as Program Director for Elementary Particle Physics. One of
the very first things I learned was
from the charter, which placed
prime importance on the need for
excellence when funding science.
I adopted that belief early in my
tenure and have held it ever since.
At the time, NSF was almost
inconsequential in the funding of
particle physics, and aside from
supporting the operation of the
12 GeV electron synchrotron, the
program was rather non-descript
and only a tiny fraction the size
of the Atomic Energy Commission’s.
The scientific community had
a great deal of difficulty in accepting a meaningful role for the
NSF in its support of outstanding science and not infrequently
acted imprudently in judging
the value of NSF proposals to
achieving understanding in the
field. Probably the most notable
example of that attitude was the
review, conducted by the Future
Facilities Panel at Woods Hole,
Massachusetts in 1974, of the
Cornell CESR proposal to convert the synchrotron to an electron-positron collider.
I believe you were one of
the panelists, and I am sure that
you recall the Panel’s decision
to recommend not funding that
proposal under any funding scenario. Later, the Panel introduced
a fourth scenario, labeled “Blue
Skies” under which it supported
the proposal.
The rationale for not supporting what was widely viewed
by the panelists as an excellent
proposal was that there wasn’t
enough money to support two
electron-positron colliders, (the
other being PEP, the SLAC 15
GeV x 15 GeV collider). This
was a phony argument; the real
rationale was political.
The bottom line is that the
NSF did provide support for
CESR, which turned out to be
the nation’s premier facility for a
30-year period when it essentially dominated publications on the
properties of b quark states.
At that time, the NSF funded
another proposal, from the University of Utah, called the Fly’s
Eye, which relied upon observing fluorescence caused by highenergy cosmic rays interacting
with nitrogen atoms of the earth’s
atmosphere. That experiment
evolved into Hi-Res and became
a world-class effort of high renown.
These efforts did not require
an infusion of lots of new money and were achieved at least in
part via a redirection of program
funds. When I informed a Nobel
Prize winner that funding for his
proposed program was scheduled
to be reduced, I was told I was
the worst program officer that he
had ever encountered in all of his
dealings with federal agencies.
Others accused me of not being
truthful in stating the proposal’s
funding.
In closing, I would like to take
issue with one of your other statements, “Probably the most urgent
issue is for constituent scientists
to make contact with the new
members of Congress to talk to
them about how valuable basic
science is to the future of the
country”. I feel this approach is
being naive and further tends to
promote the use of “pork” to get
financial support in the form of
“earmarks.” All too often, I have
found those approaches to be
counterproductive to getting the
best research supported and to
end up being wasteful and poorly
designed and planned.
I think a debate on the funding of science may be long overdue. If you feel such an initiative
might be appropriate, I would be
willing to participate.
Sincerely yours,
Alexander Abashian
Ruckersville, VA
Barry Barish Responds:
I welcome Al Abashian's reaction to my question and answer interview published in the
January 2011 APS News, but do
not agree with a couple of his
major points.
In particular, Abashian took
issue with my calling “research
funding” the most pressing issue
facing the physics community,
and he gives several examples
(in hindsight) where more judicious choices could have been
made, presumably replacing our
need for increased funding. Of
course, it goes without saying
that we can always improve our
priority setting. The peer review
process we use serves us very
well, but it is far from perfect.
Nevertheless, even in Abashian’s
own field of particle physics, the
lack of U.S. research investment
is resulting in the premier new
facilities moving abroad, the
LHC at CERN in Europe, two
new B-factories in Japan and Italy, and the Tevatron at Fermilab
being shut down despite significant discovery opportunities. In
Astrophysics, despite dramatic
discoveries of recent years and
the highly regarded ASTRO2010
report, the highest priority future dark energy mission cannot
be funded in the near future by
NASA and DoE. We certainly
don’t lack for good ideas, excellent projects or priority setting
in the U.S. We do lack research
support!
Abashian also disagrees with
my plea that constituent scientists make contact with their
new members of Congress. My
point is a very simple one and
has nothing to do with “pork” or
“earmarks.” Our Congress has
few scientists in its ranks, yet
they make many decisions involving science and technology.
Scientists must discuss these issues with them, if we are to have
an informed Congress.
DISPATCH continued from page 3
If you have suggestions for a POPA study, please send in your ideas electronically. http://www.aps.org/policy/
reports/popa-reports/suggestions/index.cfm.
ISSUE: Media Update
The Energy Critical Elements report received considerable media coverage after it was launched Feb. 18th
during a press conference at the AAAS meeting in Washington, D.C. Among the numerous publications that
published stories: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time, Nature and Agence France-Presse.
Coverage of the damaging effects to science proposed in H.R. 1 has also been robust. Roll Call, USA Today,
Science, Newsday, The Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and Long Island Business News published
stories about scientific program cuts and layoffs that would occur if the bill were to become law.
The APS petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission calling for a non-proliferation assessment of smaller,
efficient technologies generated stories in the Global Newswire and The Hill and Huffington Post blogs.
Log on to the APS Public Affairs Website (http://www.aps.org/public_affairs) for
more information.
APS NEWS
April 2011 • 5
Designing Games in Sin City Pays Off
By Alaina G. Levine
Lady Luck doesn’t always
smile on physicists, but for Olaf
Vancura, she not only grinned, she
handed him the jackpot.
In the early 1990s, Vancura,
whose PhD in physics is from Johns
Hopkins University, was minding his own business probing the
dawn of matter and time as a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics (CfA). He
enjoyed his cosmic endeavors, but
was also titillated by casino games,
brought on by a lifelong interest in
cards and card counting. While
still employed at CfA, he created
and began teaching a course at
Tufts University on the mathematics of gambling. It became one of
the most popular classes offered as
part of Tufts’ “Experimental College” and inspired him to write a
textbook, Smart Casino Gambling,
in part because “I couldn’t find [a
textbook] without junk,” he says.
“I didn’t want to expose my students to the nonsense” that existed
in current tomes about card counting.
Vancura invited the casino director of Foxwoods, a major casino complex in Connecticut, to
address his pupils. As fate would
have it, he soon began consulting
for the industry and found himself
spending more time thinking about
the mathematical problems associated with gambling than about
G stars and gamma rays. In 1997,
he left astrophysics and joined
Mikohn Gaming, a game manufacturing firm, full-time. He advanced
through the ranks, earning the title
of Vice President of Game Development, and from 2004 to 2006, he
served as Chief Creative Officer at
Progressive Gaming International.
Today he is the Vice President
of Game Development at American Gaming Systems, a leading
designer, manufacturer and operator of gaming machines for casinos. Based in Las Vegas, Vancura
oversees all product development
for the company, including game
development, operating systems,
software and hardware advancement, platform progression and
integration with third-party content providers. He directs a 40 to
50 person team and is involved in
all elements of new game creation.
The company’s portfolio includes
both table and slot machine games.
Vancura gets his greatest satisfaction from helping to design
and develop a particular game, a
process which he views as a marriage of art and science. He refers
to the original specifications for
the game as a recipe, which comprise the mathematics that will be
used to determine how the game
will be played. “You must understand the game mathematically,”
he explains, “but then you have
to step back and ask how would
an average guy play? What are
the emotional issues I will guide
them through? That’s where the art
comes in.”
Depending upon the type of
game he is designing, the math
involved could be as simple as basic algebra and calculus, to more
complex optimization, probability
and statistics, and of course, game
theory.
After Vancura and his team
determine the recipe that will
Physicist Takes a Look at TIMSS
By Gabriel Popkin
The Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS) has given rise to considerable hand-wringing among
US educators and policy makers
due to US students’ poor performance. At the annual meeting of
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS)
in February in Washington, DC,
physicist Chad Orzel said that
TIMSS physics questions were
generally aligned with standard
US high school physics curricula,
but he also suggested ways to improve the next round of the test.
TIMSS is a major international
math and science assessment designed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Although
portions of TIMSS are conducted
every four years, the high school
portion that includes physics has
only been given twice, in 1995 and
2008. In 1995, US high school seniors taking the test scored poorly,
underperforming their peers in
every other country tested. In
2008, the US did not participate,
in part due to insufficient funding
at the Department of Education’s
National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES), which manages US participation in various
international assessments. NCES
officials also questioned whether
students graduating from secondary school around the world form
a comparable cohort.
Orzel, who is a professor of
physics at Union College in Schenectady, New York, said that he
approached the topic by asking the
question, “Would this make our
[physics professors’] job easier?”
He concluded, “If my incoming
students could answer the TIMSS
physics questions, it would make
my job considerably easier.”
Orzel’s analysis covered 39
physics questions that were released from TIMSS 2008, which
was given to students graduating
from high school in nine countries. While Orzel did not seek to
explain US students’ prior poor
performance, he noted that two of
the major topic areas covered by
TIMSS—heat and temperature, and
atomic and nuclear physics—reTIMSS continued on page 6
serve as the technical bones of
the game, the next step, called asset creation, is where the sound
engineering, artwork, and animation are designed and planned.
Implementation, the subsequent
phase, involves programming the
Olaf Vancura
actual game onto the platform with
which the player will interact. His
engineers usually program in C++
or a variant, such as Flash Action
Script. Testing, and quality and
assurance (Q and A) follows. The
final step in the process is partnering with the regulators, to ensure
that the game meets all of the required standards for the casino.
The lifecycle of a game, from concept to Q and A is anywhere from
six toeighteen months, but one of
Vancura’s goals as Vice President
is to streamline the process and cut
it down to less than six months.
The most difficult aspect of his
job is “as an inventor, part of the
problem of creating something is
thinking in mind who the audience
is, which might not be you,” he explains. “So you should never fall in
love with your inventions until the
market proves you right.”
Understanding the power of the
market is especially important for
scientists and mathematicians interested in moving into the gaming
profession. Although he doesn’t
know of other physicists in the
industry, he declares that there is
a “non-trivial” number of mathematicians shaping the future of
slots and other casino games. Even
so, “mathematicians might come
across as nerdy people and don’t
understand what motivates everyday people,” he says. “If you are so
highly trained in math and physics,
you might lose sight of how Joe
the Plumber might think on a regular basis. You have to create stuff
that has mass appeal.”
The key, he adds, is to design
games that are fun for the players
and keeps them playing, even when
they are losing. “As an inventor I
have to be humble,” he says. “I am
not designing for [someone with]
a PhD in physics, but rather a guy
who wants something entertaining
and exciting,” and who will find it
interesting enough to keep coming
back.
In an industry that generates
10 times the revenue of the film
industry, according to Vancura,
this astrophysicist has found great
success at bridging the art and science. “I have a gift,” he admits, “I
am good at creating and inventing
(table and slot) games.” One of his
particular strengths is translating
the concepts behind established
board games, such as Yahtzee and
Battleship, into table or slot games.
He holds 65 patents, one of which
is for a Pachinko–type mechani-
cal game he calls Boogie Ball,
and another for a trivia-based slot
machine game framed around the
Ripley’s Believe It or Not brand.
Vancura frequently refers to
himself as an inventor, and argues that the best thing about
manufacturing casino games is
the creativity involved. “When I
was a researcher, that’s what I was
missing,” he says. “[Training as a]
physicist taught me how to solve
problems, obliquely, but that creative aspect was missing. Astrophysics was a discovery process
rather than an inventorship.”
But in gaming, there is much
to invent and the feedback he gets
is immediate–he can see it on the
players’ faces as they enjoy a game
he helped execute. There is plenty
of scientific rigor, he adds, such as
in the card counting system he created for his book Knock Out Blackjack. And in the end, he stands by
his decision to pursue physics.
“The greatest value in getting
a physics degree,” says Vancura,
“is that it teaches you to think and
synthesize knowledge. It gives you
an exceptional viewpoint of the
landscape of the world, because
it’s a high-minded field that wants
to understand everything.”
Alaina G. Levine is a science
writer and President of Quantum
Success Solutions, a leadership
and professional development consulting enterprise. She can be contacted through www.alainalevine.
com. Copyright, 2011, Alaina G.
Levine.
about this approach to time travel
is that it avoids all the big paradoxes…Because time travel is
limited to these special particles, it
is not possible for a man to travel
back in time and murder one of his
parents before he himself is born,
for example. However, if scientists could control the production
of Higgs singlets, they might be
able to send messages to the past
or future.”
Tom Weiler, Vanderbilt University, on his theory that the
LHC could be used to create particles that can travel through time,
FoxNews.com, March 16, 2011.
MEMBERS continued from page 2
of a theory of everything is that it
implies we will eventually know
everything there is to know...For
me physics is a work in progress.”
Marcelo Gleiser, Dartmouth
College, MSNBC.com, March 8,
2011.
“One of the attractive things
Conferees Grapple with Climate Change, Sustainable Energy
By Michael Lucibella
Researchers and technical experts speaking at the second Physics of Sustainable Energy conference emphasized the urgent need
to change how the planet generates and uses energy. The conference, sponsored by the APS
Forum on Physics and Society
(FPS) and held at the University
of California, Berkeley, in early
March, highlighted new research
and technology aimed at better
understanding and combating climate change.
Talks on the first day of the
two-day meeting included discussions on energy policy, the environmental effect of fossil fuels
and ways to clean up transporta-
tion, while the second day was devoted to ways to make buildings
more efficient and to sources of
renewable energy.
Though much of the conference was devoted to looking for
energy solutions, speakers at the
beginning of the program offered
a defense against critics of anthropogenic global climate change.
“Natural causes alone cannot
–I repeat cannot–explain the…
changes we’ve actually seen,”
said Ben Santer, a climatologist
at Lawrence Livermore National
Lab. He pointed to his research
showing that different layers of
Earth’s atmosphere have been
warming at different rates, rather
than evenly, as they would if the
sun were changing. “’The sun explains everything’ does not fit the
available data,” Santer said.
The tone of many of the presentations indicated that there is
no silver bullet or panacea to solve
climate change and completely
fulfill the looming energy needs
of the planet. Speakers pointed
to an inexorably warming planet
with limited resources, a growing
population and a global demographic shift towards urbanization
and higher energy use per capita.
These challenges are daunting and
will take a concerted effort from
wide swaths of society including
researchers developing the latest
green technologies, policy mak-
CONFEREES continued on page 7
APS NEWS
6 • April 2011
TRIAL continued from page 1
We've got an app for you!
The April Meeting app contains the scientific program
of abstracts. You can sort the
talks by session or unit. You'll
be able to read the abstracts,
view the speaker index, get
information on exhibitors, and
see maps of Hyatt Hotel Orange County, Garden Grove,
California.
interesting and broad science that
is represented at the April meeting
at the plenary sessions and talks,”
Heeger said. “We selected the
plenary sessions and then a cross
section of invited and contributed
talks, from the fields of nuclear,
particle and astrophysics.”
The sessions picked to be posted online include the three plenary
sessions as well as several of the
scientific and forum sessions. The
scientific sessions include “T1: The
future of Particle Physics,” “J1:
The Essence of Neutrinos,” “Q3:
Direct Detection of Dark Matter,”
and “J3: New Results from the
Cosmos.” The forums on Physics
in Society and International Physics are sponsoring four sessions.
They also include “E5: Nuclear
Weapons at 65,” “J6: The Digital
Divide in 2010,” “Y5: Science Diplomacy,” and “R5: The Status of
Arms Control.”
The sessions were chosen in
part because research in particle
physics, astrophysics and nuclear
physics is often part of large international collaborations. With
the capability to self-upload presentation materials, scientists can
instantly share their latest results
with the world.
While the INDICO trial grew
out of CISA’s desire to bring meetings content to our international
members, the trial results will help
shape the APS HQIT plans for expansion of the Online Bulletin to
offer upload capability to all meeting speakers. The Committee on
Meetings (COM) will determine
the final feature set of the Speaker
Slide Upload module, but the IT
team is currently designing the
system to support .ppt, .pdf, audio
files and others. It will also include
a Copyright Permission signoff,
granting APS the right to post the
slides, and confirming that the
speaker has obtained permissions
for any copyrighted material contained in the slides.
A few APS units currently post
selected presentations online, but
the manual process introduces a
time delay that will be eliminated
by giving speakers a self-upload
function. This trial is the next step
toward a comprehensive approach
to putting meeting sessions on the
web. More information on how to
access the presentations from this
year’s meeting can be found on
the April meeting web page on the
APS website.
glia and Bruce Miller, co-creators
for the Syfy original series “Eureka” and actor John de Lancie, who
played Q in “Star Trek: The Next
Generation.”
Deepwater Drilling: In light
of last summer’s Gulf oil spill,
Monday morning’s session “Q5:
Physics and Engineering of Deep
Water Drilling” will begin with a
talk by Brian Clark of the Schlumberger Company on how physics
techniques have aided in the search
for oil deposits around the world.
From there Kenneth Gray from the
University of Texas at Austin will
offer a brief primer on deep water
drilling. Jonathan Katz from Washington University in St. Louis will
describe what caused the infamous
“top-kill” attempt to fail to stop the
spill, and what could possibly have
been done to make it work.
Stellar, Galactic and Intergalactic Flares: Flares of all kinds
are invaluable to astrophysicists,
and are the subject of the session
“L3: Astrophysical Flares.” Hugh
Hudson from the University of
California, Berkeley will talk about
data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics
Observatory, giving a fresh look at
how solar flares behave and what
role the Sun’s chromosphere plays
in their formation. At the center of
the galaxy resides a super-massive
black hole known as Sagittarius A.
Though usually not luminous, it is
prone to flares of radio, millimeter,
infrared and X-ray radiation. Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern
University has looked at the infrared radiation of some of these
flare-ups, and will discuss how
they might be caused by a blob
of synchrotron plasma orbiting
the black hole. Wystan Benbow,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, has been studying
intense gamma ray bursts with the
latest generation of detectors, and
will present his latest research.
Cosmic Rays and Particles:
New technologies to hunt for some
of the exotic particles of the uni-
verse will be explored in session
“C11: Cosmic Ray Measurements,
Anisotropies and Propagation.”
The balloon lofted Cosmic Ray
Energetics And Mass (CREAM)
experiment, which looks for high
energy cosmic rays, recently completed its third run in Antarctica.
Young Soo Yoon from the University of Maryland will present
its findings on proton and helium
fluxes. Also in Antarctica is the
kilometer-sized IceCube neutrino
detector, which has been recently
completed. A team of physicists
from the University of Wisconsin
will show how the detector can be
used to detect the direction of solar
and stellar cosmic rays as well.
Digital Divide: Access to the
internet is critical for a country
and its population to integrate into
the evolving global economy, and
bridging the “digital divide” is the
subject of session “J6: The Digital Divide in 2010.” Hamadoun
Tourè, Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunications
Union, will start out with an overview of how mobile phones have
made tremendous inroads in the
developing world, and how to replicate that success for broadband
internet. Michael Stanton from the
Brazilian National Research and
Education Network will highlight
how the RedCLARA network that
reaches throughout Latin America
has made collaborations of all
kinds possible. Roger Cottrell from
Stanford University takes a closer
look at internet penetration in Africa, and despite challenges, there’s
much room for improvement.
For students, a free career panel
and networking reception will be
held on Friday night, complete
with refreshments. For graduate
students, Sunday’s “Lunch with the
Experts” is a great opportunity to
meet some of the leading researchers in the fields of astrophysics,
nuclear physics, gravitation and
particle and fields in an informal
setting.
MEETING continued from page 1
sion will feature John Johnson of
Caltech with the latest update on
the hunt for exoplanets, followed
by Carl Wieman of the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy discussing how federal policies could be used to help
spur university research, and Yang
Shao-Horn of MIT with the latest
battery developments. Tuesday
morning’s plenary likewise has offerings of broad interest, including
William Marciano of Brookhaven
National Lab explaining the tricky
business of pinning down the proton radius, Stuart Henderson from
the Spallation Neutron Source
showing how particle accelerators
have contributed to society and
Nergis Mavalvala of MIT discussing the connection between quantum mechanics and gravitational
waves.
Superconductivity: 2011 also
marks the 100th anniversary of the
discovery of superconductivity. To
mark this important milestone Session J2 on Sunday afternoon will be
devoted to exploring the history and
future promise of this unusual effect
of nature. Peter Pesic of St. John’s
College will reflect on the history
and controversy of its discovery by
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and his
collaborators. David Larbalestier of
Florida State University will look
at the range of materials used in today’s superconductors, and offer insight into what future materials hold
promise. Taking the implications
even farther, Tony Zee from the
University of California, Santa Barbara will delve into the implications
of superconductivity for theoretical
particle physics and quantum field
theory.
Physics in Hollywood: On
Saturday night, well-known science writer Jennifer Ouellette will
moderate a special VIP panel about
the uses and misuses of science and
physics in Hollywood films and
shows. Included on the panel will
be Bill Prady, co-creator of CBS’s
“The Big Bang Theory,” Jaime Pa-
CUTS continued from page 1
from all over the world come here,
they come to our lab, and we’re
saying ‘you know what, stay away,’
we’re saying, ‘stay in Switzerland,
go to France,’ that’s what we’re
saying and I think that’s a terrible
message to put out there. It’s also a
terrible message to send to the college senior who’s a physics major,
who maybe contemplating a PhD
program, and we’re going to say
‘you know what, we don’t have
places where you can go to pursue
your research’.”
Bishop spent much of his time
calling attention to the local impact
that the possible budget cuts would
have on the town of Brookhaven,
whose economy relies heavily on
the lab. According to budget estimates by the lab, about 950 workers employed at the lab would be
laid off. On top of that the National
Synchrotron Light Source and the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
would have to be shuttered and
work halted on the NSLS-2 due
to lack of funding, affecting thousands more visiting scientists and
construction workers.
“[T]he RHIC and the NSLS
right now play host to approximately 3,300 visiting scientists,”
Bishop said. “That’s 3,300 visiting scientists who–leave aside
the value of the work they’re doing, which is considerable–that’s
3,300 visiting scientists who will
not be staying in our hotels, who
will not be renting cars from local
dealerships, who will not be eating
in local restaurants, who will not
be buying their coffee from local
delis.”
The impact on scientific research would not be limited to
Brookhaven, but would have a
similarly deleterious effect at almost all federally funded research
centers.
“What is happening, or would
happen, at Brookhaven will happen across the country,” said Mike
Lubell, the APS director of public affairs. “H.R. 1 would affect
26,000 scientists and engineers
nationwide. It would cause the
loss of jobs at each laboratory.
As the congressman pointed out,
at Brookhaven there are roughly
1,000 people on staff. The same
thing would be replicated of
course at each national laboratory;
Oakridge National laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and
Femilab in Illinois, the California
labs, SLAC and Berkeley.”
It is unclear how long science
programs like the NSLS and RHIC
might be shuttered. The President’s
proposed budget for 2012 includes
increases to federal research. However, researchers at the lab say that
even a temporary shutdown would
have lasting effects on the labs.
“Essentially our research stops,”
said Tony Lanzirotti, a researcher
from the University of Chicago
whose research uses the National
Synchrotron Light Source, “[The
researchers] are all very highly
skilled people, they’re going to go
out and they’re going to find other
opportunities, and getting them to
come back to Long Island, back to
Brookhaven if they have to leave,
is not something that’s going to be
easy to do.”
Speakers at the press conference highlighted also how basic
research contributes to new technology and industries. At one point
Lubell held up his iPhone, saying
that without federally supported
research, the technology needed to
build the device wouldn’t exist.
“This isn’t just a sand box, this
isn’t somebody’s pork barrel, this
is the future of the country, and you
can see it,” said Peter Stephens, a
professor in the physics and astronomy department at Stony
Brook University.
APS has been actively involved
in communicating the importance
of the national labs throughout
the budget process. APS has sponsored meetings on Capitol Hill
with legislators, sent out alerts to
all its members who reside in the
US, helped organize a taskforce
on American innovation, written
numerous op-ed articles, and contributed to other media campaigns.
TIMSS continued from page 5
ceive what he termed “extremely
variable” coverage in US state
standards. Speaking about his
faculty colleagues, Orzel said,
“We tend to assume that first-year
college students have seen nothing but mechanics and very basic
E&M.”
Orzel also observed that the
released TIMSS questions tend
to emphasize computational skill,
rather than conceptual understanding of physics. Many physics
education research studies have
shown that students can often
solve seemingly complex physics
problems without understanding
the concepts underlying the problems.
Orzel did not discuss typical physics curricula in other
countries, but Alka Arora of the
International Study Center, the
Massachusetts-based center that
administers TIMSS, discussed the
different physics experiences offered to students in participating
countries. In the nine countries
that participated in the TIMSS
2008 physics assessment, stu-
dents taking the test had received
physics instruction in at least two,
and as many as five, years before
graduating from secondary school.
In comparison, most US students
who take physics at all take it for
only one year, according to data
from the American Institute of
Physics.
APS and other professional
physics societies have long been
concerned about US students’ dismal performance on international
assessments. “TIMSS results since
1995 do not give us any reason to
believe US physics education has
improved since then,” says Monica Plisch, Assistant Director of
Education at APS. “A major factor
is the broken system for preparing
physics teachers, as documented
by the Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics.”
TIMSS Advanced will be given
again in 2015. If the US participates, educators and policy makers may gain another look into
how our students stack up against
their international peers.
APS NEWS
April 2011 • 7
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Distinguished Traveling Lecturer Program in
The Division of Laser Sciences (DLS) of the American Physical Society announces its lecture program in Laser Science, and invites applications from schools to host a lecturer in
2011/2012. Lecturers will visit selected academic institutions for two days, during which
time they will give a public lecture open to the entire academic community and meet informally with students and faculty. They may also give guest lectures in classes related to Laser
Science. The purpose of the program is to bring distinguished scientists to colleges and
universities in order to convey the excitement of Laser Science to undergraduate students.
The DLS will cover the travel expenses and honorarium of the lecturer. The host institution
will be responsible only for the local expenses of the lecturer and for advertising the public
lecture. Awards to host institutions will be made by the selection committee after consulting with the lecturers. Priority will be given to those predominantly undergraduate institutions that do not have extensive resources for similar programs.
Reviews of Modern Physics
Recently Posted Reviews and Colloquia
Intermittent search strategies
O. Bénichou, C. Loverdo, M. Moreau, and R. Voituriez
At the macroscopic scale, many foraging animals search for
food by moving slowly and scanning an area intently, and
then moving rapidly to a new area for a new slow scan. At
the microscopic scale, vesicles inside cells sometimes move
diffusively, and sometimes move ballistically along rigid biopolymers. DNA binding proteins also have periods of slow diffusion motion and fast motion along the DNA. These disparate
processes can be described using the mathematics of intermittent search strategies. In this review, the theoretical framework for such search strategies is described, paying particular
question to their efficiency.
http://rmp.aps.org
Applications should be sent to the DTL committee Chair Rainer Grobe ([email protected])
and to the DLS Secretary-Treasurer Anne Myers Kelley ([email protected]). The
deadline for application for visits in Fall 2011 is May 30.
American Association of Physics Teachers
Detailed information about the program and the application procedure is available on the
DLS-DTL home page: http://physics.sdsu.edu/~anderson/DTL/
The AAPT Awards Committee is seeking nominations for:
Lecturers for 2011/2012:
• Laurie Butler, University of Chicago.
• Hui Cao, Yale University.
• Eric Cornell, University of Colorado.
• Jim Kafka, Spectra Physics.
• Fleming Krim, University of Wisconsin.
• Christopher Monroe, University of Maryland.
• Luis A. Orozco, University of Maryland.
• Carlos Stroud, University of Rochester.
• Ron Walsworth, Harvard University.
• Linda Young, Argonne National Lab.
Call for Award Nominations
•
•
•
•
•
2011 PhysTEC
All AAPT members are urged to review the descriptions
of these awards on the AAPT website (http://www.aapt.
org/Programs/awards/) and then, following instructions available at a link
on that website, to nominate individuals deemed worthy of consideration for
any of these awards.
Annual Conference
May 23-24, 2011
Austin, TX
Plenary Speaker: Carl Wieman
Associate Director of Science,
Office of Science and Technology Policy;
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2001
JASMINE continued from page 3
The 2011 Physics Teacher Education Coalition Conference is the nation’s largest meeting
dedicated to physics teacher education. It features workshops, panel discussions, and presentations by national leaders, as well as excellent networking opportunities. The 2011 conference
will be held jointly with the UTeach-NMSI Institute Annual Conference.
www.ptec.org/conferences/2011
CONFEREES continued from page 5
ers making tough decisions and
a public willing to change its behavior.
Scientists estimate that the biggest single source of greenhouse
gases is transport, especially
cars. Sonya Yeh, a researcher at
the University of California, Davis said that emerging alternative
fuels for cars, including electric
batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and
biofuels each had their own advantages and disadvantages
“We don’t know what [fuel]
will win out, but we’ll probably
need them all,” Yeh said. She added also that in order for the switch
to sustainable fuels to take root,
the government would likely have
to step in and help make the adjustment. “Infrastructure is probably the number one challenge
we’re facing when trying to get to
a sustainable future.”
Tim Lipman, co-director of the
University of California’s Transportation Sustainability Research
Center, showed a brief history of
fuel technologies and weighed in
on their possible futures. Battery
capacity has improved dramatically in the last 20 years, to the point
where plug-in electric and hybrid
cars are able to compete commercially. Hydrogen fuel cells have
similarly made significant strides,
but still generally have limited
ranges and are not quite ready for
the market.
“It’s a lot easier to concentrate
emissions at power plants and
clean them up than it is to clean
up millions of tailpipes,” Lipman
said. “Cars are only as clean as the
electricity and hydrogen used to
fuel them.”
Converting the United States
to clean sources of electricity provides its own sets of problems.
The Department of Energy recently deemed doubling the United
States’ reliance on renewable energy, from 10 percent to 20 percent by 2035, as an “aggressive
but achievable” goal. However, in
order for clean sources of energy
to become adopted more widely,
the cost of renewable fuel sources
like solar and wind would have
to come down significantly to be
competitive with fossil fuels like
coal and oil. K. John Holmes from
the National Academy of Sciences
examined whether it was likely to
see the costs of renewable energy
come down in price.
“Renewable electricity is generally more costly (except for
hydro, wind and traditional geothermal) to produce than fossil
the Oersted Medal
the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture
Award
the Melba Newell Phillips Medal
the J. D. Jackson Award for
Excellence in Graduate Physics
Teaching, and
the AAPT Distinguished Service
Citation.
fuels… So we need those policy
incentives to drive increases,”
Holmes said. “Just having adequate technology capable of
efficiency and reliably producing electricity is not sufficient to
have non-hydro renewable energy
make a significant contribution to
the US energy market.”
Nuclear energy received a
strong defense from Robert Budnitz of the Lawrence Berkeley
National Lab. He pointed to the
fact that nuclear power can deliver electricity at rates that can
compete with fossil fuels without
the greenhouse gas emissions.
Historically nuclear power has
had a mixed safety record and lax
oversight culminating in the 1979
Three Mile Island accident. Budnitz said that since then the industry has doubled down and focused
on safety and reliability. He pointed to a bevy of statistics showing
that the number of “significant
incidents” at each plant has fallen
from an average of 4 per year in
1979 to .01 today.
“What all this is telling us is
the systems are reliable and the
people are reliable,” Budnitz said.
As important as the generation
of power is its transfer to consumers. George Crabtree, from Ar-
After the Arab countries, the
next region in the world that will
make its revolution will be SubSaharan Africa. To save time, and
for the benefit of humankind, we
have to avoid the same reefs and
help them in taking their future
in their own hands. This will be
the best testament to the Jasmine
revolution.
Mourad Telmini is Professor
of Physics, Faculty of Science,
University of Tunis El Manar. He
is also Director General of the
National Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology, and vicePresident of the Tunisian Physical
Society.
gonne National Lab and co-chair
of the APS study Integrating Renewable Electricity on the Grid,
said that the United States has
huge potential solar and wind resources, but they’re generally far
from where people live. He highlighted also how the grid would
need to be able to smooth out
disruptions in supply of solar and
wind energy on cloudy and calm
days respectively.
“Renewables require a nationally coherent electricity grid,
and that’s clearly something that
we’re very far from at the moment,” Crabtree said. Crabtree coauthored a Back Page based on the
APS study in the December, 2010
issue of APS News.
Other talks highlighted improvements in solar photovoltaics, systems to gauge the energy
consumption of buildings, successes of policies in the state of
California, as well as nationally,
to improve energy efficiency and
future energy consumption in the
developing world.
Though the problems described sometimes seemed intractable, most speakers remained optimistic that new technology and
governmental policies could dramatically change how the country
conserves energy. During his talk,
Arthur Rosenfeld, who recently
retired from the California Energy Commission, described how
refrigerators kept getting bigger
and cheaper after federal regulation of their energy efficiency. He
said that with the proper political
backing, these kinds of energy
savings could be spread to many
products.
“This is the second golden age
of energy efficiency,” Rosenfeld
said.
FPS had also helped to sponsor the first Physics of Sustainable Energy conference in 2008,
often referred to as “The Woodstock of energy sustainability” by
its participants. This year’s conference had talks on many of the
same topics, but featured all-new
speakers.
Organizer of the conference,
David Hafemeister from the California Polytechnic State University, said that he was pleased with
the turnout and he hoped that
physicists and students attending
the conference might consider
focusing in renewable energy research.
“Physics is the best discipline
for understanding these things,”
Hafemeister said.
APS NEWS
8 • April 2011
The Back Page
A
number of chemical elements that were once laboratory curiosities now figure prominently in new technologies like wind turbines, solar energy collectors, and
electric cars. If widely deployed, such inventions have
the capacity to transform the way we produce, transmit,
store, or conserve energy. To meet US energy needs and Robert Jaffe, Jonathan Price, Murray Hitzman, Francis Slakey
reduce dependence on fossil fuels, novel energy systems
must be scaled from laboratory, to demonstration, to
widespread deployment.
Energy-related systems are typically materials intensive.
If widely deployed, the elements required by these technologies will be needed in significant quantities. However, many
of these unfamiliar elements are not presently mined, refined,
or traded in large quantities, and as a result their availability
may be constrained by many complex factors. A shortage of
these “energy-critical elements” (ECEs) could significantly
inhibit the adoption of otherwise game-changing energy
technologies. This in turn would limit the competitiveness of
US industries and the domestic scientific enterprise.
Although they are essential to our culture and economy,
the availability of traditional mineral materials is rarely an
issue because they come from many sources and are the focus of well-established, relatively stable markets. Recently
there have been several efforts (1,2,3,4) to identify critical MRS study stresses, however, that with the exception of heminerals that are both essential to our economy and subject lium, there does not appear to be any fundamental limit on
to supply restrictions.
the availability of any element for energy technologies in the
A newly released report by the American Physical Society foreseeable future. The problems lie in short-term interrupand the Materials Research Society (5) focuses specifically tions or constraints on supplies.
on ECEs and on the challenges posed by rapidly increasing
To deal with the multifaceted issue of ECE availability the
demand. It recommends a coordinated set of government ac- APS/MRS report makes the following recommendations for
tions to facilitate smooth and rapid deployment of desirable US federal action.
technologies. The APS/MRS report focuses on identifying
Information Collection and Analysis
commonalities and addressing potential constraints on ECEs
Collecting and evaluating data required to track the availrather than on constructing a definitive list of ECEs, which ability and uses of chemical elements is a complex undertakwill doubtless change with time as technologies, supply lines, ing. While some data are already collected by a number of
and risk factors change. Although today’s list of ECEs would federal agencies, there is no central entity for tracking minerlikely include most of the rare earth elements (REEs) along als and processed materials over their life-cycle. The Report
with gallium, germanium, helium, indium, platinum, rhe- recommends that the government should gather, analyze,
nium, selenium, tellurium, and perhaps cobalt, lithium and and disseminate information on ECEs across the life-cycle
silver, a definitive list of ECEs would require extensive study supply chain including discovered and potential resources,
based on information about occurrences, reserves, extraction, production, use, trade, disposal, and recycling. The entity unprocessing, utilization, and recycling, much of which is not dertaking this task should be a “Principal Statistical Agency”,
yet available.
a designation that would enable it to require compliance with
An element may be “energy-critical” for a variety of rea- requests for information.
sons. It may be intrinsically rare in Earth’s crust, or poorly
In addition the Report urges the federal government to
concentrated by natural processes, or currently unavailable in regularly survey emerging energy technologies and the supthe US Some potential ECEs, such as tellurium and rhenium, ply chain for elements throughout the periodic table, with the
are genuinely rare in Earth’s crust (6). Others like indium are aim of identifying critical applications as well as potential
unevenly distributed, making the US highly reliant on im- shortfalls.
ports. Still other ECEs, like germanium, are seldom found in
Research and Development
concentrations that allow for economic extraction.
A focused federal research and development program
Geopolitical issues may arise when a critical element would enable the US to expand the availability of and reduce
is produced in a small number of countries or in a location its dependence on energy critical elements. R&D to expand
subject to political instability. The present concentration of the availability of energy critical elements should include the
REE production in China is a particularly pertinent example. geology and geochemistry of mineral deposits as well as metAlthough the US led the world in both production and exper- allurgy and minerals processing technologies. Research on
tise into the 1990s, over 95% of these important elements are substitutional chemistry and material science and the technow produced in China, which is rapidly becoming the center nology of recycling can also help reduce the dependence on
for REE extraction and processing expertise, putting the US ECEs. Substitutions for ECEs may involve several other maand other REE importers at a further disadvantage.
terials or sweeping redesign, reengineering, and recertificaMany potential ECEs are not found in concentrations high tion. General Electric’s 2006 redesign of high performance
enough to warrant extraction as a primary product given to- turbine alloys in anticipation of a projected shortage of rheday’s prices. Instead, they are obtained primarily as byprod- nium (8) provides a pertinent example. Few companies have
ucts during the extraction of other primary ores. For example, resources to undertake a project of this scope; thus research
tellurium and indium are currently obtained as by-products of this type would be greatly aided by federal funding.
of the electrolytic processing of copper and zinc ores, reR&D on recycling could also reduce dependence on
spectively. By-production and co-production present special ECEs. Since most products that use ECEs currently have
economic issues. For example, it is unlikely that the mining little recycling capability, significant quantities of ECEs are
of copper (production value ~$80 billion in 2009) would be permanently discarded every year. Research on product dedriven by an increased demand for tellurium (production signs that are more suited to recycling could help ensure that
value ~$30 million in 2009).
scarce elements are more easily recovered from discarded
Several additional factors complicate the availability of products. Research in chemical, metallurgical, and environECEs. Some are toxic; others are now obtained in ways that mental science and engineering, and industrial design methproduce environmental damage unacceptable in most coun- ods, can create high-value reusable ECE materials.
tries. Discovery of new mineral deposits typically takes sevThe APS/MRS report recommends that the federal governeral years and the time between discovery and start-up of a ment establish a research and development effort focused on
new mine averages five to ten years (7). For some elements, ECEs and possible substitutes that can enhance vital aspects
large-scale production may require development of new pro- of the supply chain including: geological deposit modeling,
cessing technologies, another time-consuming activity. As a mineral extraction and processing, material characterization
result, the lag time between increased demand and the avail- and substitution, utilization, manufacturing, recycling, and
ability of new supplies may be extensive. Recycling, and the lifecycle analysis. Such a research program would have the
existence of secondary markets, is quite variable. For exam- added advantage of enhancing the training of undergraduate,
ple, recycling is highly developed for platinum, but almost graduate, and postdoctoral students in disciplines essential to
non-existent for most other ECEs. Sometimes one element maintaining US expertise in ECEs.
can be substituted for another in a technology, but more often
Success in this kind of research requires collaboration
than not, substitution requires significant redesign, reengi- among scientists, engineers, and manufacturers across a
neering, and recertification with attendant delays. The APS/
Energy Critical Elements
range of fields. Within the US this breadth of expertise exists
only at some national laboratories and major research universities. Consortia built around such institutions could bring the
depth of knowledge and continuity of focus required. Such
centers should engage and assist efforts by smaller groups in
academia and industry.
Efficient Use of Materials
The APS/MRS report urges greater attention to material
efficiency with the aim of producing necessary goods from
as little primary material as possible. Recycling is a major,
but not the sole, component of efficient material use. Other
aspects include improved extraction technology, reduced
concentration in applications, replacement in non-critical applications, development of substitutes in critical applications,
and life-style adaptations. Several of these approaches fall
under the R&D heading discussed earlier.
In addition, the APS/MRS report urges that the federal
government establish a consumer-oriented “Critical Materials” designation for ECE-related products. The certification
requirements should include the choice of materials that
minimize concerns related to scarcity and toxicity, the ease
of disassembly, the availability of appropriate recycling technology, and the potential for functional as opposed to nonfunctional recycling. Also steps should be taken to improve
rates of post-consumer collection of industrial and consumer
products containing ECEs, beginning with an examination of
the numerous methods being explored and implemented in
various states and countries.
Market Interventions
With the exception of helium, the APS/MRS report does
not advocate government interventions in markets beyond
those implicit in their other recommendations concerning research and development, information gathering and analysis,
and recycling. In particular, the report does not recommend
non-defense-related economic stockpiles. Industrial users of
ECEs are best able to evaluate the supply risks they face and
purchase their own “insurance” against supply disruptions
caused by either physical unavailability or price fluctuations.
Non-defense government stockpiles of critical minerals have
had unintended, disruptive effects on markets (2,9).
The single exception noted by the APS/MRS report concerns helium, which is unique even among energy-critical elements because it is permanently lost to the atmosphere if not
captured during natural gas extraction. Helium has unique
properties: it remains liquid at 0K; it cannot be made radioactive; it has the highest specific heat capacity of any gas
except hydrogen. Helium is critical for current energy R&D
and it is anticipated that it will be increasingly in demand
in the future for technologies not yet developed. The Report
recommends that measures should be adopted to conserve
and enhance the nation’s helium reserves.
Federal Coordination
ECE availability is a complex topic that straddles the domains of a number of federal agencies including the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security,
Interior, State, and Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the Office
of the US Trade Representative. The capacity to orchestrate
a productive collaboration between these agencies and coordinate their efforts with the Office of Management and Budget lies in the Executive Office of Science and Technology
Policy (OSTP).
The Report recommends that OSTP create a subcommittee within the National Science and Technology Council to
examine the production and use of ECEs within the US and
to coordinate federal actions.
The authors of this article all served on the committee that
drafted the Energy-Critical Elements Report. Robert Jaffe,
chair of the committee, is at MIT; Jonathan Price, co-chair,
is at the University of Nevada, Reno; Murray Hitzman is at
the Colorado School of Mines; and Francis Slakey is APS
Associate Director of Public Affairs and an adjunct professor
at Georgetown University.
References and Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
NRC, Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the US Economy (Nat Acad Press, 2008).
Managing Materials for a Twenty-first Century Military (Nat Acad Press, 2008).
Critical Raw Materials for the EU (Ad-hoc Working Group on defining critical
raw materials, European Commission, 2010) http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/raw-materials/files/docs/report-b_en.pdf.
Critical Minerals Strategy (US Department of Energy, 2010) http://www.energy.
gov/news/documents/criticalmaterialsstrategy.pdf
Critical Elements for New Energy Technologies (APS-MRS, 2010) report – website address.
D.R. Lide, The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 85th Edition, Sect.
14 (CRC Press, 2005).
R.C. Schodde, J.M.A. Hronsky, in Wealth creation in the mineral industry — integrating science, business, and education, M.D. Doggett, J.R. Parry, Eds. (Soc.
Of Economic Geologists, 2006), p. 71.
P.J.Fink, J.L. Miller, D.G. Konitzer, J. of Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society 62, 57 (2010).
Selling the Nation’s Helium Reserve (Nat Acad Press, 2010).
APS News welcomes and encourages letters and submissions from its members responding to these and other issues. Responses may be sent to: [email protected]